Book Review: ‘Blood Vengeance’ by Mary E. Twomey

Young adult fantasy fiction is a beloved genre, and Mary E. Twomey enters the fray with the ‘Forsaken Brotherhood’ series. Book 1 is ‘Blood Vengeance’, a story that follows Keran, a retired ‘trapper’ (vampire hunter) who’s dragged back into the world of fighting monsters when his best friend, Avet, re-enters his life with a case Keran cannot refuse.

What We Learn About the Characters

Keran and Avet are in their late 20s—both of them skipped academics to enter the dangerous life of trapping. They were a formidable duo till Keran quit. And now, three years after they said goodbye Avet appears with a vampire on his tail.

Keran is rusty, but both make it through the first battle in the book. Avet reveals that his kid sister, Cher, has disappeared. All signs point to a vampire kidnapping. But the vampire’s MO doesn’t match the lore the trappers know, so they ask for another trapper’s help.

Enter Sevan—she’s used to working solo, but she’s convinced otherwise. She’s stoic; she’s hot; she has high standards. She, Keran, and Avet have similarities in their backstories. But the only thing keeping them together is this mission.

The only other character of significance we meet in ‘Blood Vengeance’ is Sargis. Keran’s foster father, he’s the quintessential ‘guy in the chair’ who does the research and hacking.

While there is a gay character and a trans character, their queerness is mentioned, but not part of the story. The protagonist is straight and to remove any doubt of the same, he cannot interact with the sole female character without thinking of her as a love interest. He’s also convinced he’s being paired up with said character, even though no such thing is mentioned. The female character has no personality other than being a potential love interest.

A Procedural in Fantasy Clothing

Following the introductory scene, ‘Blood Vengeance’ kicks off with a fight scene, which may give the reader the impression that the book will be action-packed. It isn’t. The book follows a procedural style of storytelling—the characters don’t interact with any monsters, nor do they get into subsequent battles. Instead, they need to retrace Cher’s steps, investigate her previous whereabouts and uncover details about the possible unsub.

Fantasy detective stories are certainly more popular today; the likes of ‘Lucifer’ and ‘Supernatural’ come to mind. While this structure sets the book apart from the regular world-building style of fantasy novels, the pacing undoes the writer’s efforts.

Avet is supposedly concerned for his sister’s safety, and yet there is no urgency in his actions. He and Keran banter endlessly, when Avet should be rushing to get Keran on board with joining him in his search. This issue continues throughout the book. There is way too much focus on mindless dialogue that’s trying to be cheeky, but comes across as tired. Not enough time is spent with the investigation—almost the entirety of their investigation is unveiled through a convenient MacGuffin, instead of any actual work on the characters’ part.

Too Much Repetition, Not Enough Substance

This book is short, but it was difficult to race through because of the writing style. There are very peculiar turns of phrases that feel out of place, or outright incorrect. These impeded the reading experience even further. Plenty of information is repeated over and over again. Vital page space is wasted on this and made worse by cliché banter that even the CW would scoff at. The world of the book is still mostly unknown. Because the story is so contained, we don’t get an understanding of how the regular world reacts to vampire killings, nor do we know what the trapping life looks like.

The constant repetitions and dragging conversations made it feel like the writer was attempting to reach the page count so that the story could count as a trilogy. What the reader is left with is half a story, if that.

Some elements, like Keran’s ability, are mentioned but nothing much happens with it. That should have been interwoven into the story as his struggle to control his ability would (or should) have impacted his emotional and physical well-being. And this is another aspect that percolates throughout the book. There is no emotional heft to the proceedings. In conjunction with the poor dialogue-writing, the book dragged on with expository thoughts, all Keran’s, except for one sentence in the final chapter when we suddenly knew what Avet was feeling. The author also wastes too much time detailing who wants what from their hotel experience, adding to the turgid reading experience. There are little writing errors like that throughout the book and it makes the story feel like it’s running in place. The characters are supposed to be searching for a loved one who could be dead or worse, but they’re squabbling over thread counts?

What does work in the book are the references to Armenian myths. The author should have dug into those elements more. We could have used explanations of why certain characters, creatures, and items were named in such a fashion. Everyone can Google the names, but what’s the diegetic relevance to them?

‘Blood Vengeance’ is ultimately a rather boring entry in the vampire fantasy genre. The book isn’t innovative or arresting. The pacing is the biggest obstacle to enjoying the story, but the inane navel-gazing banter doesn’t help either.

The book is the start of something more. There are plenty of loose threads that aren’t only left hanging, but they’re hardly referred to again. But even as an introduction to the series, ‘Blood Vengeance’ simply doesn’t colour in enough details to keep one wanting more.

‘Blood Vengeance’ is published by Audion Media. I received an e-ARC of this book.